Well, I really played Warcraft 3 first, and only after that I played 2 and 1. Maybe I should've played them first, but whatever.
Night Elves getting into Alliance is WoW lore, which is fucked up beyond belief where Furion goes massive genocide on his own people because DURPTY DOO.I don't really count it.
As for Illidan, I didn't found him that whiny, and when you've spent thousands of years with a warden you completly hates and and is absolutly insane while your brother bonks your highschool love, and when your freed your brother calls you EVIL and then spouting nonsens about you allying with the enemy and "dooming us all" plus everyone hates you and wants to kill you, I say you got a reason for being pretty bitter.
As for the runthrough, I apreciate the apreciation (boy, that was a weird sentence).